Signed a lease, container arrived, moved in

Again the days flew by without us getting around posting a few lines. We actually signed a lease about 48 hours after my last post as we intended to do – luckily! It gave us just enough time to buy a couch, baby bed and mattress as well as a king size mattress before our 3 europallets arrived and we moved in.

So how is the house and where is it? It is located in the heart of Wedgewood, very close walking distance to shops, arterial 35^th Ave but still residential, quiet. It feels safe to walk in this area even after darkness. The house itself has a nice cozy upper level and a semi finished basement, though officially you probably would call it “finished”. There is still reconstruction going on in the basement. The old bath/shower is being replaced by a new one. We never saw the old, but the very old pipes gave an idea how it might have looked like. We are looking forward to the result of the reconstruction works. Furthermore there is a large room, linoleum floors with a small cooking area in the basement. Once we furnished it and decorated it ideal for guests that want to visit us and once in a while want to have some time for them self or working, studying room for us in the meantime. The stairway downstairs still needs some treatment; let’s wait what ideas we have to give that area a better look. Upstairs we have two small bedrooms, a kitchen and a larger dining and living area. Not to forget a large shed and garage that supply us with plenty of storage space for bikes, boxes and tools. All this space – and I got rid of all my gears like old computers, cables, lamps in Kiel – it would have fitted in this space just perfect! I am sure! On the other hand this way I have the opportunity to look for new items that I might want to use one day in the future or at least a friend of me might ask me for. Our garden had quite a few weeds and dried plants, but my mother’s knowledge and combined efforts with rake and cutter under her command made the back already looking very good. Now we just have to keep watering the spots she told us to and hope not to pull out the “wrong” weeds once she is gone.

We decided for this place in favor for the neighborhood. We turned down two other places for that reason, though we were not complete sure from the start if this is the right judgment. And my legs still are not convinced that this is the right place. My legs? Yes! We found that somewhere on these premises are quite a few FLEAS. We suspect the garage by now. The other family members seem to get bitten not at all or rarely. Theda has about 6-7 bites. Myself … uncountable, I stopped at 70 and quite a few more joined them - mostly on my legs, but truly across the full body. My legs itch like hell and l don’t dare to wear any shorts. I look like in medieval unhygienic times, full of parasites. At first I suspected the cat in our vacation home, later the rental car, but it turned out to be this house. Inside has mainly hardwood floors, thus not the ideal flea area. The garage and shed have a lot of old wood which I suspected to be the home of them. The furnishing process of the house made all of us running in and out of garage and home, probably carrying quite a few from the outer building into our home. After catching a few with my bare hands I pulled the line and bought the strongest pesticides available and placed them in the shed and garage. Indoors I only use the candle-soap water-flea trap, since I doubt Narne should be exposed to pesticides. Luckily I must have an odor the fleas love over all, protecting the rest of the family – though there are moments I wish they would spare me at least a little more. But by the looks of it we are winning. I am getting bitten less. (I hope not for the reason that they are all fed, but for the reason that they are all gone for good!). It has always been like that, insects seem to love me and my personal “perfume”. During camping no one next to me needs insect repellant since they go on me anyway. In the woods, as soon as I stop moving I can be sure to have 3-4 mosquitoes on my legs. Is it the amount of chocolate? Wine? Sports? I wish I would know the reason for that and could counter act on that.

Has there happened anything beside that? My legs say no, but Katrin says I should mention about our success at the yard sales today, the contacts to the neighbors, the discovery of our favorite chocolate spread at the shops, the unbelievable fact that only after two days in this home it already starts to look comfortable.

We found us a nice group of chairs and a toddler carriage (backpack) for our coming up hikes into nature as well as a microwave and coffee machine - overall very successful for just this one Saturday. We hope to continue this series next Saturday and there after … . Concerning the neighbors, they seem to be extremely nice. Theda and Jonte already made friends with the one east of us, who has two cats that caught the interest of them.

So far so good, since we did not order telephone and internet (DSL?/Cable?) for our new home yet, we only have very limited access to the online world – having effect on emails, news and the blog. And sure we have our hands full with the project making our home as comfortable as needed while taking care of the kids – again no prediction on when we will write again – as usual ;-). Oh yes, thank you for reading these lines and keeping track of us!

FLEAS part II: this morning I went to the basement to check the reconstruction process. Coming back up I found 7 fleas on my socks and trousers. To recheck the location of the fleas I went down for a couple of seconds again – I caught 3 fleas on my socks. That was enough, I send the kids, Katrin and the grandparents to take a long visit in the zoo and started fogging the house 2 hours ago with pesticides. Will return soon to ventilate it thoroughly and wipe the free areas before the kids return. I wish we could have done without pesticides in our living area, but the amount of parasites would have made a normal living impossible. The self made flea trap did only catch 3 fleas over night – nothing compared to the amounts I saw this morning. Will keep you posted about the process …

Finished Packing

Finally done! Yes, unbelievable, but it is true. Three europallets are packed, each 1.60 m high, between 160 kg and 300 kg heavy. Sealed with foil and heavy duty strap - thus nothing can go in or out anymore. Everything that did not make it inside stays here, is stored, sold, given away or chucked away. All boxes are filled up to the top, no cubic centimeter of space left. But I suppose that we will find a lot in them in Seattle, wondering why we took that along. Necessities and memories ... all included. The way it is packed we are pretty confident that everything arrives safe and in one piece - time will tell if we are right.

Ok, there are a few things that accompany us in the plane, but mainly clothing and kids stuff, documents and the laptops. The majority is in these boxes. They should be picked up soon!

Now the kids need a bit more attention again, they missed out a bit the last days. On Saturday we want to make a farewell party with a few of their friends. Weather forecast is not the best, but we hope to be able to make a BBQ anyway. Either balcony and indoor party or outside the whole time.

Major Packing

Less than 1 month to go, until we fly out of Germany.

The last two days have been very busy - most items, household goods and other stuff that goes via container had to be packed. The 2 large cartboard containers did arrive in time last thursday and we packed 4 cubic meter (140 cubic feet) onto 2 europallets and got much more into the boxes than we expected. Since we plan to send 6 cubic meter (3 europallets - 210 cubic feet) this gives us the opportunity to send more than planned. We will see how fast these last approximate 10 boxes fill. So far we did fill 2 huge and 6 small boxes (equivalent to 22 small boxes). Most awkward to pack were the bikes: 2 bikes, 1 racing bike, 1 bike trailer, 2 children bikes, 3 helmets and bike tools in a box 120 cm x 80 cm x 90 cm .... we managed, though it took us several attempts to get them all in. We needed to remove all wheels, saddles, carriers and handle bars to get them in - these went into the same box, but all detached from the bikes. I only hope I padded my racing bike sufficiently ;-).

We used up already 30 m of duct-tape and more to come. Just by chance we got the opportunity to borrow heavy duty strap to fix the cartboard boxes on the europalettes, saves me from solely trusting into this hand strech foil.

After all we are less exausted and further in time than we expected to be tonight. Giving us atleast a little bit of time to relax. The twins did stay overnight at a friends place and Narne was not a big handicap during packing - as long as you make funny faces at him from time to time he is giggeling a lot. Luckily no box fell onto him.


After we picked Theda and Jonte back up again, they needed a lot of exra attention, since they were really tired and found the nearly empty flat and haven't seen us for some time ... . After we managed that they really had fun seeing the huge boxes and all the other stuff that lies around during relocations as you can see :-)!

Now I will have some wine, and prepare for another day of packing, tomorrow all my scientific books and office folders in university will be packed - I wonder how many boxes I will come up with in the end. As well my department has getaway day, hiking and then a nice BBQ on the beach, due to all this packing I will skip the hiking and join them later. Looking foreward to that retreat!

Hello Blog ;-)

We decided it is probalby easiest to keep you all informed about our big move and settling in Seattle with a blog. Easy enough to put photos in and not as much work as our totally outdated website. Thinking of taking down the website anyway, atleast temporarly.

So where are we now?
About 40 days to go. We booked a holiday home near Seattle and the excitement is rising. How will it be. Most adminitrative stuff is done, we got our Visas, I quited my job, the flat, the newspapers and informed us about all the does and don'ts concerning shipping of house hold goods.
And slowly I am getting nervous. There is still a lot of work in the house deciding what to keep and store at our parents places and what to give away or throw away. Simultaniously studying the housing markets in Seattle to make contacts and see if something appropriate within distance to NOAA (where I will work) is available.

Will try to put some photos about how we look NOW, before the move on in the next days. Let's see how gray we turn within the next few weeks/months.